Australia news LIVE: Victorian government to scrap mandatory vaccination in some settings as state records 1405 new local COVID-19 cases, three deaths; NSW restrictions ease as state records 1360 new cases, one death

Good evening and thank you for reading our live coverage of the day’s events. If you’re just joining us now, here’s what you need to know.

• The number of daily coronavirus infections in NSW is rising sharply, with 1360 cases and one death recorded today. On Monday, the daily total was 536 cases. Modelling by the University of NSW suggests the state may be on track for 25,000 cases a day by the end of January, Health Minister Brad Hazzard said today, which “takes us to about 175,000 cases in a week”. He said that was “a big difference to the 1360 today, which is already a cause for concern.” To date, the state has recorded 110 cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the virus.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet today, followed by Health Minister Brad Hazzard.Credit: Janie Barrett

• Despite those figures, NSW eased a raft of coronavirus restrictions today. Masks are not required in hospitality and retail settings and are only required on public transport, in airports and on planes, and for unvaccinated indoor hospitality staff. The state has also changed the definition of “close contact” to focus on household contacts, meaning fewer people will be required to isolate after potential exposure to the virus. NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet urged people to “take personal responsibility” to avoid a COVID-19 infection before Christmas. But the state’s Chief Health Officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said people should consider continuing to wear masks indoors, gathering in lower-risk settings and getting their vaccine booster shots if they are eligible. The boosters are available to adults whose second dose was at least five months ago.
• In response to NSW’s growing outbreak, the West Australian government announced it would reclassify NSW as an ‘extreme risk’ state on December 18. The change will make it even harder for people in NSW to enter the state.

Melbourne’s Block Arcade.

• Victoria is scrapping the requirement that people must be vaccinated to enter retail premises, or to attend places of worship, weddings and funerals. The changes take effect from 11.59pm tonight. Customers must still be vaccinated to attend hair and beauty appointments. Unlike in NSW, masks remain mandatory in retail settings such as supermarkets and shops, regardless of your vaccination status, and are required for hospitality workers at cafes, bars and pubs. Masks are not required for attendees at weddings, funerals and other ceremonial events. Victoria recorded 1405 COVID-19 cases and three deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total number of active cases in the state to more than 11,500. The state recorded four new cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, taking the total number of confirmed cases of the strain in the state to 10.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath.Credit: Matt Dennien

• Zach Hope writes that Queensland tourism operators reported “many cancellations” from interstate travellers during 12 hours of state government silence about the quarantine fate of air passengers potentially exposed to the Omicron coronavirus variant. In a decision now reversed, health authorities on Tuesday night declared everyone on board flight VA1105 from Newcastle to Brisbane on Monday as a close contact, meaning they faced Christmas in quarantine regardless of their proximity to the known COVID-positive passenger. The same applied to all passengers on the subsequent flight VA375 from Brisbane to Townsville. It took until after 10am on Wednesday for Health Minister Yvette D’Ath to inform the public that only those sitting within two rows in front of and behind of – or next to – the infected passenger would be forced into two weeks’ home or hotel quarantine.

Tasmania has opened its borders to NSW, Victoria and the ACT.Credit: Jim Rice

• Tasmania’s borders are now open to visitors from NSW, Victoria and the ACT, and Josh Dye has prepared a handy guide to interstate travel here. Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein said this morning he was “very happy that the state is reopening”.

This is Michaela Whitbourn signing off on the blog for today. My colleague Broede Carmody will be back with you early tomorrow morning.

Queensland’s top doctor has warned coronavirus cases will peak faster than expected, possibly within weeks instead of months, as the highly contagious Omicron strain spreads.

Modelling that underpinned Queensland’s road map, completed in October when Delta was the major variant, predicted there would be 100 deaths in the first 90 days after reopening, 100 new daily infections by January and up to 1000 new daily cases by mid-2022.

Queensland’s newly appointed Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard speaks at Monday’s press conference.Credit: Dan Peled/Getty Images

But Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said things had changed since the arrival of Omicron, which was much more contagious than Delta.

“Most of us now believe that the speed with which we will reach a peak is probably faster than we originally anticipated,” he said.

“I think it’s probably we’re talking more in the weeks than the months.

“What we’re seeing in New South Wales and the United Kingdom is very much faster, so we will be seeing that in the coming days and weeks and I think we can reasonably expect that Omicron will spread in Queensland in the coming weeks.

“It won’t be a surprise. We are not going to change our plans.”

Read the full story here.

While NSW modelling suggests the state could see up to 25,000 COVID-19 cases a day by the end of January, authorities are still uncertain on what the Omicron variant will mean for Victoria.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said the state government was still trying to get more details about the vaccination booster program from the Commonwealth to factor into its modelling.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley on Tuesday.Credit: Chris Hopkins

Mr Foley said it appeared that booster vaccines worked well against the Omicron variant, slowing the variant of the virus “right down”, if not “knocking it out of the park”.

Adults are now eligible for a booster shot if their second dose of a coronavirus vaccine was at least five months ago.

“We would imagine from what we’ve seen that the spread of Omicron - given that it’s pretty well seeded into NSW - is going to be very hard to resist,” the Health Minister told ABC Melbourne’s Drive program.

“What that means in terms of caseload is a matter for us all with our boosters, mask wearing and [other measures], but we shouldn’t panic about that because what we’re seeing increasingly with high levels of vaccination is a disconnect between caseload, infection numbers, and the impact on the health system.”

The Health Minister said he had a meeting with Victorian modellers on Tuesday to ask for data that takes into account the best information on the Omicron variant.

“What has become clear from all the advice is that if we all come forward and get our boosters as they fall due, that if we all continue to follow the sensible measures and the prudent measures that we’ve got in place to keep our community open, that we will enjoy a successful Christmas, New Year, and holiday period,” Mr Foley said.

It’s enough to send even the most seasoned traveller into a panic: mandatory quarantine over Christmas. While Queensland authorities have reversed a decision to plunge two planeloads of travellers into mandatory quarantine over the festive period, the case highlights the potential risks still involved in interstate travel.

Many Victorians are favouring local holidays this year to avoid any potential disruptions associated with interstate or overseas travel. If you’re among them, we’d love to hear from you.

A total of 96,440 people nationwide received a booster shot on Tuesday, federal health department data shows.

Since the start of this week, each day there have been more people receiving their third vaccine shot than there have been people receiving their first or second dose.

The sudden increase in the number of booster shots being administered is partly because the recommended time between second and third doses has been reduced from six to five months.

This graph shows the daily increase in first, second and third doses in Australia over the past month. The wavelike pattern in the data over time is because fewer vaccine doses are administered on weekends.

The line to focus on is the dark blue one showing booster shots each day. During November, there were more first and second doses than booster shots being administered each day.

But over the course of last week the number of people getting a booster shot each day started to pick up and there were consistently more people showing up to get their third vaccine dose than there were people getting their first dose.

Yesterday, for the first time, there were more booster shots administered than first and second doses combined.

The West Australian government will reclassify NSW as an ‘extreme risk’ state on December 18 after daily new cases surged past 1300, making it even harder for people in NSW to enter the state.

The reclassification removes WA Police discretion to allow West Australians currently in NSW to return to the state, apart from in extraordinary circumstances.

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan Credit: Matt Jelonek

NSW was downgraded to ‘high risk’ on November 3 but WA Premier Mark McGowan said that he wanted to keep his state COVID-free while its double dose vaccination rate was still shy of its 90 per cent target for people aged 12 and up and cases were rising rapidly in the eastern state.

“As NSW has been at ‘high risk’ for some time now, many who would have wanted to return to WA for the end of the year would have arrived already to ensure they are undertaking their 14 days of self-quarantine under the ‘high risk’ rules,” he said.

“This is not a situation to take lightly and it is necessary because my priority is the health of Western Australians, first and foremost.”

Mr McGowan also revealed his government would halve its international arrivals cap on December 23 from 530 arrivals per week because of the advent of the more transmissible Omicron variant of the virus.

He said two cases of Omicron had been detected in returned overseas travellers in WA hotel quarantine.

“Anyone else approved to travel within the limited ‘extreme risk’ rules will be undertaking 14 days of hotel quarantine to better protect WA, and this is why it’s important we keep capacity in our hotel quarantine system and why we are halving the international arrivals cap,” he said.

NSW recorded 1360 new cases today, up from 795 cases on December 14 and 529 on December 13.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard warned that cases were expected to hit 25,000 new infections a day by the end of January.

On Monday Mr McGowan announced the state’s COVID transition plan, which will see its hard border policy dropped on February 5.

However, to enter the state travellers must have returned a negative PCR test in the three days before arrival and they must undertake another test within two days of arrival.

WA Health Minister Roger Cook confirmed on Tuesday the cost of the test taken outside of the state would be borne by the traveller.

Nearly 443,000 Victorians are already overdue to receive their COVID-19 booster vaccine, according to the state’s Chief Health Officer.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation recommended the six-month interval between second doses and booster doses be slashed to five months, a policy change that took effect at the end of last week. Australians aged 18 and up are eligible for a booster, but children are not.

The Chief Health Officer said 720,403 Victorians were now eligible to receive a booster dose and, because of the reduced interval, 442,716 were overdue to receive the booster vaccine. There were 6274 booster appointments available in Victoria’s state-run clinics over the next week.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton addresses the media today.Credit: Chris Hopkins

The Chief Health Officer’s update also offered more information about the state’s new coronavirus cases. The three new deaths recorded in the state were aged in their 70s and 90s. Of Victoria’s population over the age of 12, 92.2 per cent have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Of the 365 people in hospital in the state with the virus, 63 per cent were not fully vaccinated, while 91 per cent of those in intensive care were not fully vaccinated.

The top 10 local government areas to record the most new COVID-19 cases were: Hume, Casey, Moreland, Brimbank, Whittlesea, Melton, Wyndham, Glen Eira, Monash, and Greater Dandenong.

As we reported earlier, Victoria has recorded four new cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, taking the total number of confirmed cases of the strain in the state to 10. NSW has now recorded 110 cases of the variant.

Two of the new cases in Victoria are returned international travellers who arrived in the state recently on separate flights from the United Kingdom.

According to the Victorian Chief Health Officer’s daily COVID-19 update, both those cases have been in quarantine since they arrived in Melbourne.

The third case was a household contact of a previously reported case, and the fourth was the Omicron case who attended two Melbourne nightspots on Friday.

Anyone who attended the Sircuit Bar at Fitzroy that night from 9pm to midnight, or the Peel Hotel at Collingwood between 11.30pm and 3am, has to get tested for COVID-19 and quarantine.

As noted throughout the blog today, Victoria is scrapping the requirement that people must be vaccinated to enter retail premises, or to attend places of worship, weddings and funerals. The changes take effect from 11.59pm today.

Customers must still be vaccinated to attend hair and beauty appointments.

Melbourne’s Block Arcade.

Unlike in NSW, masks remain mandatory in retail settings such as supermarkets and shops, regardless of your vaccination status, and are required for hospitality workers at cafes, bars and pubs. They are not required for attendees at weddings, funerals and other ceremonial events.

The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) welcomed the changes and said they struck the right balance.

“Victoria is one of the most vaccinated jurisdictions in the world and it’s a credit to the government and all in the community who’s gone out to get the jabs that an additional easing of restrictions can now occur,” ARA CEO Paul Zahra said.

“The removal of vaccine checks in retail will allow businesses to maximise their trade during the holiday sales period which is when most discretionary retailers make up to two thirds of their profits. With the vast bulk of the population now fully vaccinated, it makes sense to remove this impediment on businesses and customers, allowing people to move freely in and out of stores.

“Staff and customers have become accustomed to wearing masks in indoor retail settings; we respect this requirement as an ongoing safety measure at this time. As they have throughout the pandemic, retailers will follow the public health advice.

“The most important thing is ensuring retailers can safely trade at their full potential over the holiday sales period. We also saw elevated levels of customer aggression focused around the vaccine checks. Retailers will welcome the easing of tensions in this area and we look forward to these unsavoury incidents now being a thing of the past.”

Mr Zahra said “Victorians are set to spend $15.4 billion in the pre-Christmas sales period – up 11.5 per cent on pre-pandemic levels in 2019”.

“The pent-up demand for shopping will continue through to the new year as well, with Victorians set to spend $5.6 billion in the three weeks from Boxing Day – up 13.8 per cent pre-pandemic.”

New public health orders regulating the use of masks and COVID-19 vaccine certificates will come into effect in Victoria from 11.59pm today.

Although Victoria’s vaccination rate is above 92 per cent for people aged 12 and over, health authorities are taking a cautious approach to restrictions because of the uncertainty surrounding the new Omicron strain of the virus.

The full impact of the strain is still largely unknown, but early analysis by South African researchers indicates the variant appears to cause less severe disease than previous variants of COVID-19. It is, however, more transmissible.

Omicron has overcome Delta as the main strain of the virus in South Africa, accounting for more than 90 per cent of all new infections in the country. It has also caused a “tidal wave” of infections in the UK, which has recorded the first death of a patient infected with the strain worldwide.

Read the full story here.